We were invited to join in the 60th birthday celebrations of Corry, a Dutch friend of ours, which were to be held in the village hall in Artigat on the 6th July. We were lucky to be offered the use of the holiday house of our friends Jez and Caroline in Le Fossat so we decided to go for a long weekend. The previous Thursday saw us packing up and installing Rambo in the car ready for the drive over there. Thankfully the weather was cloudy, the previous few days we had had temperatures up to 40C, so it was much better for travelling. We used the sat nav, successfully, for the first time although it was somewhat of a magical mystery tour! After a brief stop at the patisserie, for pizza, in Lezat we arrived at Caoutelle at 6.30 and opened up the house. It's quite some while since anyone was there so we had to fight our way through the cobwebs to open up the shutters. The first job was to sweep up all the dead bees which had somehow managed to find a way into the house. After making up the bed and letting Rambo stretch his legs we settled down with the pizza, a glass of wine and finished with a game of Scrabble before going to bed.
On Friday morning we went into Pamiers and did some shopping at Carrefour before heading back to Fossat and a long,lazy lunch at "chez Janine". Back at Caoutelle where we found Rambo very happy to see us return and off to bed for a siesta!
We had invited Mike and Jik for dinner in the evening so after the siesta it was time to start preparing the meal. Sadly the weather was heavy and thundery so we had to abandon plans of eating outside. It was good to see them again and we had a very pleasant evening with them.
On Saturday morning Nigel went over to St Martin d'Oydes to call on Sjef who we thought was back from Holland as indeed he was. Nigel had not long been returned when Sjef, who had decided to go out for a walk, called in to say hello to me as well, a nice surprise. We were invited to Martin and Miekes for Saturday evening and on the way there we called in to say hello to Rudd and Kitty some more Dutch friends of ours who have a holiday home in Bajou. Then on to Landry where, after a look at all the animals and the veg. garden we spent a pleasant evening, on the terrace, catching up with Martin and Mieke.
On Sunday morning Nigel and Rambo walked down to Fossat to the boulangerie and 8 to 8 ( as if a shop in rural France would actually keep those hours) to pick up a few necessities and then we drove over to Carol. There was no-one at home so I left a note saying that we would call again the next day.
Sunday afternoon we went over to Mike and Jiks where I had arranged with Jik to watch the me Wimbledon mens finals. Unfortunately it was a 5 set final and we had to leave after the 4th set in order to go back to Caoutelle to prepare for the party.
The party was to start at 8pm and we had been told that everyone had to be there on time! An unusual occurrence in this part of the world! It was a good evening, about 75% Dutch and most of Corrys family had come down for the party. I was pleased to meet up with several of my old Scrabble friends who gave me a warm welcome. The Artigat dancers gave a display and Corry and Hans did a tour of the hall on a bicycle, Corry riding pillion to great cheers from the assembled guests. The theme of the evening was the "60's" and Mike had but together a great tape of many of my old favourites! Various people did sketches and songs throughout the evening. Tapas and sangria were served at the start of the evening and later we were served with grilled sardines, sausages, pork ribs and salad. Sadly there seemed to be a huge amount of food left over but I learned that most of it was used up next day. The evening continued with dancing and even Nigel managed to take to the floor!! At midnight, which heralded the start of Corrys birthday, we were served with Champagne before it was time for everyone to take their leave after a very good evening.
On Monday morning we went back to Carol and found Dominique and Jean-Marc at home along with a couple of their friends. We sat and chatted for a while and admired baby Ines who is now almost 6 months old. They have finished converting Nigels "workshop" which led off the sitting room. About 3/4 of the space is now a sitting area with French windows out to the rear of the house and the other 1/4 is a separate toilet and utility room. There is now a door from there into the kitchen. They have recently started work on the bathroom and there is now a shower in there and the bath has been taken out, they hope to complete the work in the next couple of weeks. We walked round to the rear of the house and said hello to the horses who were standing under the trees swishing their tails to try and get rid of the flies. We then did a tour of the "garden" which has sadly become very overgrown although they are managing to find the time to grow some vegetables. When I look at it now I marvel that we managed to keep on top of it all!
On Monday evening we had invited Tim and Tina for a meal and we had a very pleasant evening with them before going to bed for our last evening at Caoutelle. After packing up, tidying the house and checking that all was safe we left on Tuesday morning and drove over to Tajan to have lunch with Kate and Peter before returning home in the evening.
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